Amiga Power


Forgotten Worlds

Publisher: Kixx
Machine: Amiga 500

 
Published in Amiga Power #1

Forgotten Worlds

Despite sounding like a rather crap prehistoric movie starring Doug McClure, Forgotten Worlds is actually a well-respected shoot-'em-up from the arcades of 1989. You play a bloke with an aerosol can strapped onto his shoulders flying around the air pumping holes into baddies who treatm in at you from you, down and all around.

It all plays out against a gently-rolling post-apocalyptic backdrop of blasted cities, 'dust worlds' and underwater seascapes, and as a conversion you have to say it's still pretty well spot-on. The graphics make for an appropriately eerie atmosphere, and the pace is fast and furious. In fact, it's so fast and furious it'll take you quite a while to catch up with it.

The main faults are really those of the arcade, particularly the tricky control system (for the first hour you'll find yourself blasting in circles faster than Michael Bareshnikov with a firework stuck up his bum) though once you get the hang of, say, pulling down left when you want your bloke to aim up right (like a kind of warped puppet on a string) you'll be blasting away fine and dandy.

Forgotten Worlds

What irks me more is the way you die. Essentially you only have one life, with an energy bar that ebbs down bit by bit. This takes away any real feeling of danger - you tend to ignore the fact that you're getting hit until you keel over for seemingly no reason.

Forgotten Worlds was never an incredibly innovative game, but what it did it did well. And it still does.

The Bottom Line

A fairly enjoyable, though slightly dated, arcade romp which benefits from a two-player mode.